Many people see declawing as a "simple fix" to get rid of their cat’s unwanted scratching, but it is actually very painful and cruel to the cat. The declawing process is equivalent to removing a human's finger past their last knuckle. The declawing process removes bone, nerve and joint from a cat's paw, and causes excruciating pain and often leads to further problems down the line.

The process of declawing involves the amputation of the last bone of each toe. There are a couple of different procedures to remove the claws, which the standard procedure is amputation with a scalpel or guillotine clipper. However, all the procedures still carry the same long-time risks of lameness and behavioral problems. After the surgery the wounds are closed with stitches and surgical glue, and the feet are bandaged.

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_dark_cat's_paw.jpg

For several days after the surgery, shredded newspaper is typically used in the litter box to prevent litter from irritating the declawed feet. This unfamiliar litter substitute, accompanied by pain when scratching in the box, which may lead to cats stop using the litter box. Some cats may also start biting instead since they no longer have their claws for defense.

Declawing also comes with many medical drawbacks including pain, infection, tissue necrosis (tissue death), lameness, and back pain. Removing claws changes the way a cat's foot meets the ground and can cause pain similar to wearing an uncomfortable pair of shoes. There can also be a regrowth of improperly removed claws, nerve damage, and bone spurs.

Declawing is an unnecessary surgery that provides no medical benefit to the cat. Instead of declawing, cat owners can easily train their cats to use their claws in a manner that allows everyone in the household to live together happily.

Amanda Drummond has started a petition on change.org in order to make declawing illegal in the State of California. Amanda works on a clinic and says she far to often get to see many of these procedures being done. The cats always have lingering pain, take a long time to recoup and many times have no idea how to function anymore. If you are interested in signing the petition, you can click here.

For more information about declawing and how to find other solutions on how to decrease the scratching, you can go to The Humane Society’swebsite.